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This blog was created to showcase the works of artists around the world who paint primarily with the palette knife.

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Sunday, October 31, 2010

6"x8" oil on Belgian linen mounted on archival board"Instead of looking at the subject and bringing it into ourselves (as beginning artists often do), we should learn to ask, What things within me can I bring out in this subject?"- Dan McCaw

I'm finally back home after some extended travel, and it is so good to get back into my normal routine again! So my dilemma has been either no internet connection, or no time to share what's been going on! So- back to where I left off, almost three weeks ago now, during my trip to San Diego - I enjoyed a couple days of painting over at Keys Creek Lavender Farm - what a wonderful place- even in the off season. During my second day of painting there, I wanted to arrive early enough to paint the rows you see when you initially drive up. Even though they've been harvested, the rows themselves and the shadows they cast around the curve of the dirt road are really wonderful in the early morning sun!

I have one more painting from Keys Creek Lavender Farm that I'll post tomorrow...and in the coming blog-posts, news about a recent commission, my trip to Norfolk, VA for the big art event (my newest collector is Bank Of Hampton Roads!) as well as an award for another painting...finally ended by spending this past week helping my daughters in northern Virginia move from 2 apartments into one (that part of my travels felt like boot-camp). It's good to be back home.

Lately I've been working on larger paintings and finishing paintings that I have started. Today I finished this 20x24. I started with an abstract design with the color and lights and darks then did some negative painting, then positive. Back and forth. This was a painting that I had started a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't happy with the composition or the color. I had the trees to light and bright and there was no where for me to go as far as light accents. The sky and snow are a violet color which I thought was very pleasing with the orange reds. This was a lot of fun once I let go and just started with a loose design. It was too tight before and I wasn't having fun with it.

I posted this on my website and also updated my website. I've got another on the easel today and will probably paint through Halloween on it.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

“NIGHT RIDER”5x7 inch original plein airoil painting by Tom BrownI actually painted this outdoors AT NIGHT using a palette knife and the compact pochade paintbox shown in my YouTube video.

Initially there was no traffic on this deserted road, but just as I was finishing the painting a car came whipping down the road. It changed the entire feeling of the scene.

The car was gone in a flash, but working from memory I immediately added the blast of light from his headlights and the streak of red from his tail lights. Click the detail image for a better view. Hope you like it.

Sometimes life gets too busy to paint often, and that's when I appreciate my palette knives even more. They allow me to still paint, even in a stolen lunch hour. This is a value study of an ornamental tree close to my office building. 6" x 8" on prepared and tinted paper.

These are some studio paintings that I finished this week. With cleaning my studio and moving things from place to place I decided to finish these that have been sitting around undone. After a second or third look or a long period of not looking at the paintings, it is amazing what you see that you didn't the first time around. All needed some changes, tweaking or major overhauls.

I also have a few more of the plein air paintings from San Luis Obispo that I didn't post. Two of those paintings are posted below. All these paintings are posted on my website at www.beckyjoy.com.

A sweet little abstract painting here -- with a short explanation! Years ago I worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulderl, Colorado. The atmospheric scientists there tended to hang out on occasion in the "map room" where odometers and other graphs reigned supreme. They were completely taken with the climate, meteorology, atmosphere -- every once in a while a great Chinook wind would pound Boulder, often with wind gusts over 100 mph! Mama Nature ruled, man! This is an ode to that era of my life.

By the way: you may know by now that I've applied new pricing to my oil paintings, as most are not in galleries. This one is for sale at $36 which includes s/h in North America. It's a 4"x6" miniature palette knife painting on linen panel. Just write me, I'll send you a Paypal invoice, and we'll got from there -- or feel free to write me at KarlaNolan@gmail.com for more information. Thanks so much for looking!

I have also set up a second website, www.PaintingsOnGlass.com, to showcase my paintings on glass. There is a piece in progress as I type with sailboats. That's a true challenge, showing proper structure and making the water look good. Be sure to check it out, along with my new blogspot, listed below.

Thanks for looking!

Look below for a link to yet another art blogspot, one that I created for my paintings on glass, or click here: PaintingOntoGlass

I painted these summer aspen trees with palette knife and extremely thick paint. I love how the chunky paint adds to the texture of the bark and the movement in the leaves, and how the painting continues around the edges of the wrap around canvas for a sculptural-like frameless piece of art.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Busy, busy, busy! I have been so, so busy! It's been fun, though, painting miniatures onto linen panels. It's challenging to provide any detail in such a tiny space! Obviously my influence has been our recent trip back East -- there's not much in the way of ocean in Colorado! We do have reservoirs, rivers, streams, lakes and so on, but somehow the Rhode Island trip seems to have been a bit of a kick in the pants for me regrading boats and water. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I hate. (More coming!)

I have also set up yet another website, www.PaintingsOnGlass.com, to showcase my paintings on glass. There is a piece in progress as I type with sailboats. That's a true challenge, showing proper structure and making the water look good. Be sure to check it out, along with my new blogspot, listed below.

Thanks for looking!

By the way: you may know by now that I've applied new pricing to my oil paintings, as most are not in galleries. This one is for sale at $36 which includes s/h in North America. It's a 4"x6" miniature palette knife painting on linen panel. Just write me, I'll send you a Paypal invoice, and we'll got from there -- or feel free to write me at KarlaNolan@gmail.com for more information. Thanks so much for looking!

Click here for a link to yet another art blogspot, one that I created for my paintings on Click here: PaintingOntoGlass

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Today I had more painting time. I took a day off from construction, except to hold board a couple of times.

I started this painting and wiped it off not once, but twice. The second time I liked the look of the canvas in places where I wiped it off, so I kept it thin in the sky. I added the cloud with the brush and the light with the palette knife. This was a painting more about color than anything else. I like adding a touch of light in the ground to help balance the light in the sky. It gives a little more interest to the painting than just sky.

I also finished a larger painting today and touched up one that I realized after looking at it for a while that I wasn't really done with it. I needed to be more aggressive with the paint. I'll have to photograph it later.

I got a call from Link Gallery in Wyoming. They received the paintings that I sent them and everything shipped just fine. Always a relief to hear that.

Being the landlocked Colorado chickie that I am, I must tell you how much I appreciate the moon and its reflection over the ocean. It's a rare sight for me, as we only get to either Coast about once a year and that's not always near a beach! So...with stars sparkling in the skies, the moon aglow -- what can I say? Here we go! (Oh, that is SO blasted corny, but I could not resist.)

You may know by now that I've applied new pricing to my oil paintings, as most are not in galleries. This one is for sale at $36 which includes s/h in North America. It's a 4"x6" miniature palette knife painting on linen panel. Just write me, I'll send you a Paypal invoice, and we'll got from there -- or feel free to write me at KarlaNolan@gmail.com for more information. Thanks so much for looking!

I started yet another art blogspot, one that I created for my paintings on glass, click here: PaintingOntoGlass

These Texas bluebonnets and Indian Blanket are painted with extremely thick oil paint applied with palette knife on wrap around canvas with the painting continuing around the edges. I love how the extreme texture causes the paint and colors to jump off the canvas and come to life.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

I've been in a wintry mood lately - that is to say, I've been aching for peaceful, snowy days that make the world a lot quieter and hot chocolate all the more delicious.

Since it's mostly just a rainy mess out here, I found a lot of my atmospheric inspiration from reading a poem by Joanna Klink called "Porch In Snow." It helped to put me in the right mindset for this painting. Originally featured in Klink's amazing book of poetry called Circadian, I first came upon "Porch In Snow" in an absolutely outstanding anthology called Montana Women Writers: A Geography of the Heart (seriously...this is an amazing book. I highly recommend it). Klink is a professor of graduate creative writing at the University of Montana-Missoula.

Having just returned from Newport, Rhode Island, with even more inspiration than the usual, I present to you a fun little miniature painting of three sailboats with their colorful jibs exposed, dancing in the breeze. Honestly, I am not a sailor of any sort -- I tend to get seasick! But I sure enjoyed watching the sailboats out in the water for one of the last weekends of the year -- and took a great number of photo references from which to work. It was a difficult painting session, however, as the canvas was so small -- but I think it was successful.

You may know by now that I've applied new pricing to my oil paintings, as most are not in galleries. This one is for sale at $36 which includes s/h in North America. It's a 4"x6" miniature palette knife painting on linen panel. Just write me, I'll send you a Paypal invoice, and we'll got from there -- or feel free to write me at KarlaNolan@gmail.com for more information. Thanks so much for looking!

The other day I painted on rough textured linen stretched canvas. My former art instructor, Francois Arenas, have me enough of the raw rough canvas to stretch my own canvas. I stretched it, prepared it, gessoed it, but hadn't used it these past years, it felt too precious to paint on. But when I did finally paint on it I didn't like the roughness as my palette knife plopped the paint on it. I actually prefer these gessoed hardboards, the way the knife glides on it. So, palette knife painters, what surface do you prefer?

Monday, October 25, 2010

This little painting I did today after helping to roof my new studio. I didn't have time or the energy to paint the moon last night or the night before, but I did take notes on the colors. I love the moon when it first rises and has that peach color to it. The clouds are lit by the moon and have a warm green cast to them around the moon. I haven't gotten a lot of painting done with the studio work. Now that the roof is on we can take it a little easier. And now it can rain. I thought I would post a photo of my studio at the moment. Below is the cramped quarters and mess that I am working in right now. It makes it difficult to paint anything large.

My desk, which you cann't see very well under all the stuff, including dust is one of my favorite found pieces that I own. It was a desk that a contractor threw out. It had stains, cement, cigarette burns, etc on it. I loved the style, a 60's desk. I sanded it all down and found out that it was solid mahogany. I put many layers of tongue oil on it and repaired one of the drawer handles by rebuilding it. I couldn't find any to match or the same size with the holes matching up on the desk. So I rebuilt it and painted a faux finish to look like the wood, then put the tongue oil on it too. Turned out great. I love those kinds of finds.

These sunflowers were painted from a gorgeous bouquet in my studio with extremely thick oil paint and palette knife. I love the contrast in the colors and how the texture of the paint causes them to leap off the canvas and come to life.

I painted this from atop a high hill overlooking the city as first light washed across the city. For this painting I used a palette knife and the small pochade shown in my YouTube videos.

The pochade is completely self-contained and it simplified the process tremendously. I simply opened it and I was ready to paint. When I finished this painting I closed the lid with the painting securely held inside. And I was off to paint at another location . . . . .

Saturday, October 23, 2010

If you've been following this art blog at all, I'm sure that you're well aware that we were recently visiting friends and relatives on the East Coast -- remember, we are usually landlocked in colorful Colorado -- Rhode Island and Pennsylvania were our temporary homes!

You probably also know that I cannot resist a sunset -- and especially one slipping away behind the Atlantic Ocean! So...here you go...just for you -- I sure hope you enjoy the colors of the sky, the hint of the last bit of sun, and a few sparkles on the water.

I've applied new pricing to my oil paintings, as most are not in galleries. This one, 8"x10" oil painting, palette knife on linen panel, is an absolute steal at $100 which includes s/h in North America. Just write me, I'll send you a Paypal invoice, and we'll got from there -- or feel free to write me at KarlaNolan@gmail.com for more information. Thanks so much for looking!

I didn't post yesterday. I was so busy with the studio and packing paintings for a new gallery that I will be showing in, the Link Gallery in Cheyenne, WY.

Today I worked on the studio remodel all day. We have 1/2 the rafters up for a new roof. We are incorporating a storage shed into the studio to make it larger and to give me a storage area. The walls and cement floor were good, but the roof, OMG. It leaked like a sieve. So we dismantled the roof today and started on the new one. The weather is supposed to be good for the next week. It rained yesterday and this morning. Now we should be safe to work on this part of the project. The sunsets and rain clouds have been magnificent this week. So is the moon that is visible from the sliding door of my studio right now.

I hope that I will be able to work on some larger paintings this weekend. I have plenty of small ones, but the larger ones I still need to work on.

I'll try to take a photo of what is going on with the studio and post it tomorrow.

This was my weekend palette knife effort. It is destined for a fund-raising auction for Adopt a Golden Atlanta (http://www.adoptagoldenatlanta.com ). However, if anyone is interested in purchasing it, I will donate the full sale price to AGA in your name. This is 11x14" oils on canvas-covered hardboard. Contact me at my website.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Another painting inspired by our trip back East. We drove through the Pocono Mountains at the height of the autumn colors -- and this is one of my impressions of those days. More fun with painting!

I, like everyone else, have been hit hard by the economic times and have been considering the following decision for a while now. Since almost no galleries who represent me carry my oil paintings, I have determined that I will discount the cost of my oil paintings carried by Daily Painters and other such art blogs -- the list below indicates sizes and costs which I will institute, starting with this painting. Any paintings 11"x14" and under in size will be shipped without additional shipping and handling charges in North America; over 11"x14" will have an added fee, determined at the time of sale. I hope this helps you collect worthy art as I don't feel it is fair to not provide reasonable costs and stop artists and collectors from connecting with one another, even during trying financial times. As always, Paypal is preferred and I can send an invoice.

4"x6" painting -- $36.00

5"x7" painting --$52.50

8"x10" painting -- $100.00

9"x12" painting -- $135.00

11"x14" painting -- $175.00

s&h applied in addition to costs for below sizes

12"x16" painting -- $215.00

14"x18" painting -- $285.00

16"x20" painting -- $360.00

Larger painting prices to be determined! Please note, all of these artworks

are sold UNFRAMED.

I hope you appreciate my new oil painting policy. Please let me know if you have comments or questions at KarlaNolan@gmail.com. This also applies to the paintings that are not yet sold found on my website (listed below). Thanks for looking!

A few weeks ago, my doorbell rang and a lady delivery person asked me my name then handed me this lovely bouquet. Full of pink roses, carnations, stocks, heathers and big yellow lilies. Oh how I love delivered flowers for no special occasion but just to be told "I'm thinking of you".

The results of a recent vacation to Newport, Rhode Island, this is a dusk seascape that I had fun painting. It's something of a miniature, unframed, but just a little jewel. Way too much enjoyment for words.

I, like everyone else, have been hit hard by the economic times and have been considering the following decision for a while now. Since almost no galleries who represent me carry my oil paintings, I have determined that I will discount the cost of my oil paintings carried by Daily Painters and other such art blogs -- the list below indicates sizes and costs which I will institute, starting with this painting. Any paintings 11"x14" and under in size will be shipped without additional shipping and handling charges in North America; over 11"x14" will have an added fee, determined at the time of sale. I hope this helps you collect worthy art as I don't feel it is fair to not provide reasonable costs and stop artists and collectors from connecting with one another, even during trying financial times. As always, Paypal is preferred and I can send an invoice.

4"x6" painting -- $36.00

5"x7" painting --$52.50

8"x10" painting -- $100.00

9"x12" painting -- $135.00

11"x14" painting -- $175.00

s&h applied in addition to costs for below sizes

12"x16" painting -- $215.00

14"x18" painting -- $285.00

16"x20" painting -- $360.00

Larger painting prices to be determined! Please note, all of these artworks

are sold UNFRAMED.

I hope you appreciate my new oil painting policy. Please let me know if you have comments or questions at KarlaNolan@gmail.com. This also applies to the paintings that are not yet sold found on my website (listed below). Thanks for looking!

Monday, October 18, 2010

This is a winter scene from Oregon. The only warmth was in the sky at late afternoon. I like the peach color against the different blues and violets. I used the palette knife on the buildings, trees, sky and the bushes in front. I usually use the palette knife towards the end of the painting putting the basics in with the brush.

Today I got the news from FASO that one of my paintings was voted in the top 15% for the FAV 15%. That is really a nice feeling to be voted on my work by other artists. To view the paintings that were picked, click here.

I also got the news earlier that I will be in the Mountain Oyster show in Tucson. One of my plein air pieces from Lake Pleasant.

I haven't gotten a whole lot of painting done with the studio remodel. The studio is coming along great. Today I got a sliding door in that will open to the patio. I like the idea of being able to keep the door open on a nice day. It will be a great way to keep the fumes down. I would also like to put in an exhaust fan. I'll take some photos a little later so that you can see my new reworked studio. The electrical and new lights will be next, then the roof.

12"X12" New Mexico Landscape. I love both New Mexico and Colorado. For an artist - these two states provide a never ending source of inspiration. This painting has a lot of texture and beautiful New Mexico desert colors. This painting is available and can be purchased on my website artbynv.com